Review Summary

Literate and handsome, "Pandaemonium" examines the relationship between the English romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) and William Wordsworth (1770-1850) as a drama of friendship, rivalry, ambition, betrayal and political intrigue in an era of recognizable parallels to recent decades. So, working from a screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce ("Hilary and Jackie"), the director, Julien Temple ("Absolute Beginners"), infuses his film with elements of political rebelliousness colored by the French Revolution, government surveillance and repression, utopianism, scientific innovation, respect for nature, drug use and popular stardom of the sort that prompts the press to clamor and young women to swoon.  Lawrence Van Gelder